In Missouri, researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis have developed a method to weed out lazy bacteria to ensure that only the most efficient are used in order to boost biofuel production yields. The research found that most of the bacteria created from the same ancestor are lazy, eating up feedstock that more efficient bacteria could instead be using to produce more biofuels. The quality-control tool they developed places a sensor inside cells to monitor how well they work and then triggers to allow the bacteria to continue living and growing, or to die from lack of food or antibiotics.